First time I've seen this since the cinema visit in 2002. Wow, what a long time ago. At the time, I didn't know anything about history and I barely understood what was going on at all. With the benefit of twenty-three years' life experience and learning, I had a better grasp of things, but still found much of it baffling.
I remember finding it rather bloated and 'all over the place' back then...turns out that hasn't really changed. There's so much going on to try and adequately capture a snapshot of a lost era of NYC's history. I found much of it irritating (honestly, I don't care all that much about squabbles between poor immigrants in filthy streets) but Daniel Day-Lewis' character, Bill the Butcher, is absolutely fantastic. I'd say DDL carries the weight of this film on his shoulders. His performance is stunning throughout, and I was really just watching it for him. He didn't disappoint.
Quoting this for the purpose of posting this:
This is the second-best thing about GoNY (DDL being first). I absolutely adore this soundtrack by Howard Shore. This was peak Shore, back in the same era as The Lord of the Rings. This music absolutely stirs my heart and takes me back to a simpler time, when films were still amazing and smartphones didn't exist.
"Kingdoms and empires pass away like mist from the sea. Even now the shadow of doom is over this city and the slow tides of oblivion lap the feet of this unheeding race."
The Running Man 1987
Probably one of the most Arnie of Arnie's films. It has a ridiculous amount of one liners, Arnie grunts, muscle flexing and cheesy action. It's not a very good film and is up there as one of his weakest 80's efforts along with Red Heat and Conan the Destroyer. It's still a bit of a laugh and at no point tries to take itself seriously which you can give it credit for.
There's a new version coming out which is more closely based on the Stephen King story.
Yeah same, and you absolutely need to take that back about Red Heat too, Animal.
"I do not want to touch his ass, I want to make him talk!"
I will not sir! It's pure Regan era trash.
I do think Raw Deal is a pretty decent movie hindered by the fact that Arnie's character has to be an undercover cop. Would gave been much better if he was low level criminal trying to work his way up.
Just watched the trailer for Red Heat. I'd never even heard of that film before, but it looks highly entertaining. Gonna give it a spin this weekend.
"Kingdoms and empires pass away like mist from the sea. Even now the shadow of doom is over this city and the slow tides of oblivion lap the feet of this unheeding race."
It’s funny in places but generally pretty terrible. The best thing about it is that they were denied permission to film in Red Square so they had to be sneaky and not draw attention, which is tricky when you’re parading Arnold Schwarzenegger around dressed as a Soviet officer.
Yeah, I always liked Red Heat. It's not perfect, but I think it's actually a better film than Raw Deal and Running Man.
They're all kind of in that same grouping though, variations on the same 80s, cheesy, quotable nonsense. I'll happy sit and watch it if it pops up on TV in the evening. Can't say I ever really detected anything about it that marks it out as worse than quite a few of his other similar films.
